Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1887-04-10
YUCATAN's ARCHNOLoGIsTs.
Their Enthusiasm in the Lost Lore
OF that Country.

HEIR Enthusiasm i'm the Lost Lore
OF that Country.
NEW YORK, April 81 spent an hour
yesterday with DIR. and Nine. LIE Plon-
geon, the arch8Ologists of Yucatan. New
York society has made something of a pet
OF Mime. LIE PlOngeon this winter, as the
way OF New York society is; but in the
whole course Of its years of lion worship
and liOness alteration l doubt if Murray
Hill ever came across a subject whose
ways OF looking at things were more
widely different from its own.
Can you trace the connection between
the ribbon bows of the arm chair in the
drawing-roOm and the tangled under
growth OF the tropic woods of Mexico |?
Between the white handed lsnguor that
with difficulty lifts the long handled eve
glass and the quiet endurance that stands
out for years against the malariSl chills
of a Central American jungle? The point
OF contact puzzles me, unless it be that
society which does nothing atones for its
idleness by perfervid admiration OF ac-
tivity In others whenever it approaches
the heroic type.
DevOtees of archaeology are rare in
America, and | doubt if another woman
lie Plongeon is an enthusiast, and with
DR.. LIE Plongeon, her husband, whose
cOlaborer she is, has lived among the ruins
OF the lost civilization of Yuoatan, Sleep
ing among the stones of forgotten cities
at night and porting over hitherto I'M
deciphered hleroglyphics by day, till she
looks on In half comprehending wonder
when a skeptio hints doubt OF the value
to this materlalIstic nineteenth century
ofthe gathered fragments OF the lore of the
long forgotten past which patient re-
search has gleansd.
Nine. LIE PlongeOn has lectured before
the students OF Columbia college this
winter, and, In conjunction with her bus
band, has published a couple of volumes
on the early civilization OF the Mayas-
the aborigines of Yucatan, aad more
advanced people than their neighbors,
the MonteZumas OF MeXico-in which
the results of dozen years of exile are
set forth. l found them in a students
workshop unique OF its sort; he, white
haired but vigorous; she, twenty years
his junior, slender, bright eyed and OF
clear, pale skin. Books were everywhere;
on the tables, the chairs, the floor. The
walls we're covered with what looked like
Egyptian picture writings in primary
colors; and photographs, casts and photo
graphic negatives of sculpture ana eIabo-
rate stone carvings found resting place
wherever there was room.
sit is coming warm weather soon,"
she said, with the quick running speech
that comes as naturally to vivacious
woman as breath; "half New York will
be off to Europe in a month. They go to
what thew call the Old World, indeed.
They scour the highways and byways Of
every continental city, and IL they want
antiquities they set out post haste for
Egypt and the Nile. They don't know
and you couldn't make them believe that
America Is the oldest world of all; that
down there in Yucatan civilization Is
buried that dates back to the pyramids
and has monuments as imposing to the
full"
Twelve years, with corps Of Indian
workmen TO help them, DR.. and Nine.
LIE Plongeon have gwen to their task in
the woods or Yucatan. They have brought
back a wealth Of material for the Ameri-
can archGolOgist, part Of which has
been given to the public In the Metro
politan Museum. Cnitchen liza, the dead
city, whose temples tumOled stone from
stone. and whose arts and sciences have
been as If they were not for thousands OF
wears. is as real to them still as the pave
ments OF Broadway, and Nine. lie Plon-
geon looks to going back to its site for a
fresh season OF work before any long
period has gone by. some can't leave IA
thing half done, you know" she said to
me. ssand Americans OF all people must
wake up to an interest in the prehistoric
story of their own land some day"
ALPHA.